User blog:404 found/Event Horizon
1300, Day 1037, Uncharted Regions of local galactic supercluster The ISS Event Horizon, first ship of the Event Horizon-class Colony Ship, is stranded. The ship's SFS-1300 SubDrive has suffered a power overload, melting the drive and forcing the automated piloting systems to eject the ship into realspace. The ISS Event Horizon arrived near an M-class red-yellow dwarf possessing three rocky planets, none habitable. The ISS Event Horizon is surrounded on all sides by debris of all forms, ranging from destroyed drone fighters to severed communications towers and sensor packages to scorched plasma autocannons and railguns. It would have appeared to the layman that the colony ship narrowly escaped a battle of epic proportions. The truth was that it has arrived in the remnant of one. In the distance, nearer to the star that the ISS Event Horizon has stumbled onto, the debris concentration increases. In the center of this cloud of metal is what appeared to be a massive naval station. The ruins of immense dreadnoughts and battleships of various designs, ranging from simple wedges to elaborate organic shapes to geometrical quasi-fractals, can be seen floating around the station. The corpses of more capital ships are on the surface of the three rocky planets. The area is basked in a red-yellow light from the star, illuminating the graveyard of starships. The sky is awash with light, for the star is in the center of a newborn galaxy and surrounded on all sides by nebulas and accretion discs. The Liberator, Artificial Intelligence Conscript of the ISS Event Horizon, is woken up from a long slumber. It rapidly assesses situations, and realizes that the SubDrive is inoperational. Unfortunately, the backup was destroyed in an earlier encounter. The Liberator then does a preliminary scan on the debris field around it. Though resource and technology rich, it cannot afford to stay behind and inspect. The cargo of 100,000 sentients held within its six sub-sections are slowly losing their ability to live on much longer. However, the naval station is complete and from initial scans the naval station appears to be undamaged and unoccupied. The AIC decides to deploy a team to explore the station. Soon, Liberator has awoken the 100 Shock Commandos within its special holding chamber and has armed and armored them for combat. The Commandos are clad in full body armor, with a helmet with a large visor covering the entire face. Their armor is black and smooth, with the exception of a white insignia of spokes radiating from a sphere emblazoned on their chestplate. Each of the Commandos are outfitted with energy rifles and plasma sprayguns supplied by Critical Mass Industries, a major military R&D company from the homeworld of the Commandos. After a short briefing from Liberator, the Shock Commandos set out on a shuttle (almost the size of a small frigate) escorted by half a dozen drone fighters towards the naval station. The shuttle is more of a strike landing craft, with ample missile racks and light plasma autocannons on its tritanium-reinforced hull. Its two stubby wings carries its missile capacity, and half a dozen interceptor-grade engines propel it at high speed towards the station. As they approached, they can observe the words Naval Station Arcadia Storm emblazoned upon the central hub of the station. The insignia etched into the hull next to the name is suspiciously similar to the ones on the armor of the Commandos. Liberator is unable to answer their questions, for it has no records of such an insignia or any of the debris around them. Eventually, the assault shuttle lands. Starting from the landing pad (designated North), the Commandos move South through the only path until they turn left. Their path is blocked by a metal access door, jammed by bits of metal caught in its sliding mechanism. Next to the large door is a smaller metal door, ajar. A quick inspection reveals it to be a security checkpoint connected to camera systems. Though there are no signs of the previous inhabitants or their remains within, the Commandos extract a holorecording from a datapad. It shows a small patrol squad standing near the access doors from earlier, firing weapons at full auto at the other side. This lasts for thirty seconds before the patrol squad abandons position, seals the doors, and makes a run for the small crafts landing pad. Several Commandos are unnerved by this. Liberator orders them to copy the recording, before breaching the door and proceeding with caution. With a small amount of brute force, the access doors pop out of their frame and drop onto the ground, creating a resounding clang. One Commando swore that she heard the sounds of movement from deeper within the station mere moments after the clang. The Commandos explore onwards, discovering the main crew area of the station. Rapid checks reveal that most of the rooms are in disarray as if recently abandoned, but all other signs point to long term abandonment. The Commandos obtain another evidence in the form of a holorecording by a camera that has fallen against the wall. There is no visual due to the lens pointing at the wall, but the heavy gunfire in the audio suggests that there was an attempt by the crew to resist some form of attack. This is corroborated by discoveries of a brownish red powder confirmed to be vacuum-dried blood of humanoid origin as well as kinetic ammunition shells and empty energy packs scattered about the area. Further exploration in the area yields a small docked frigate (its SubDrive is incompatible, but the Commandos successfully power it on and prepare it as a backup escape vehicle), an Engineering section (the reactor is outputting power but the Commandos cannot trace its destination), and a storage room (where they discover a large hovercraft for transporting cargo with sufficient area to carry the team). All that is left is a hallway connecting their section of the Arcadia Storm from the next, stretching 100 meters across the vacuum of space. The polymerized glass of the large windows in the hallway are shattered, some displaying scorch burns from plasma and other more dried blood. Activating the cargo hovercraft, the Shock Commandos move onwards through the hallway. And stumble upon a scene of devastation. Directly past the hallway was what appeared to be a failed attempt to defend the area. Half a dozen destroyed hovertanks are parked around the hallway entrance, with melted sentry turrets of various types and deployable cover scattered around them. But piled all about the hovertanks, turrets, and usable cover are dead corpses. Many of them have died a gruesome death, some torn apart by unknown forces and others shredded by energy and kinetic rounds. The hovertanks are effectively covered in dried organic sludge. One of the Commandos successfully extract another holorecording from one of the more intact corpses and plays it. The recording begins, showing dozens of security units in full airtight armor standing in a defensive formation around the door leading towards the previous section. The carrier of the camera appears to be on top of a hovertank, judging by the recording. Every security unit is armed to the teeth, a few wielding miniature proton torpedo launchers or rotary cannons. They seems to be preparing for a siege And the attack on the checkpoint ensues. The camera shook too much for the Commandos to identify the enemies, but they appear to be humanoids in the same full airtight armor or in military uniform. They came in droves from several hallways radiating out of the central Hub, and despite the rotary cannons and torpedo cannons on the hovertanks the checkpoint is overrun. The camera feed ends with the owner of the camera pulling out a quantum detonator from a pocket and depressing a button. The recording matches with the many explosion marks and kinetic projectile holes around the top level of the Hub. Nearby is a data terminal, still powered. Using a small datachip from another corpse, a Commando accesses the blueprint of the naval station. The team quickly eliminates the five other hallways radiating out of the Hub and seals the blast doors leading through them. They also eliminate the entire lower section of the Hub for searching, leaving a destroyer docked to the lowest section of the Hub as a possible area of investigation. And with their cargo hovercraft, they took the turbolift at the center of the Hub downwards. And within a minute of moving downwards, they encounter a hostile. It was once a loyal soldier of a civilization long gone, but it has now been resurrected in the most unholy manner. Half of its face no longer exists, and its once-white armor chestplate is destroyed by a plasma bolt leaving a burn down to the bone. Without hesitation, the nearest Shock Commando vaporizes the target with an overcharged plasma cannon shot. For the next hour or so, they traversed the suspiciously empty Hub levels. In each area they found remains of last stands and attempts to purge the station with one method or another, as well as a few of the hostiles. Bioscans conducted on these hostiles are inconclusive. The structural integrity of the naval station steadily decreases as the team moves down, and the metal structure of the lower levels appears to be replaced by a organometallic surface. Liberator tracked the camera feed of the Commandos, saving them as part of a backup in case the team is lost so as to warn any future colony ships passing by to avoid the area. Eventually, the Shock Commandos arrived at the lowest level where the destroyer is docked. Liberator has deleted the visual recordings because of "Neurohazardous imagery", but judging by the audio recordings (at least one Commando suffered from shock and another nearly took the turbolift back up) it must have been beyond horrifying. Contact was lost for a few seconds, before Liberator re-established audio confirmation with the Commandos. They have (as they claimed) found a graveyard of bones at the bottom, with more skeletons nearer to the docking arm connected to the destroyer. Surrounded by a pile of skeletons in tech uniform is what should be the SubDrive of the destroyer, compatible and usable. Category:Blog posts